Category: Philippine News

President Duterte at first played coy when asked about his assessment of his debut in the international stage in the 2016 summit of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the 18-country East Asia Summit in Laos last week, upon his arrival from Jakarta where he proceeded after the Asean meetings saying it would be “self-serving.” But with little prodding he opened up, “I’m sure that if you’re a Filipino, you’d be proud of me.”

He said the only ones who would not be proud of what he did in Laos and Indonesia (where he proceeded for a state visit from Vientiane) are the “low-life sa press, iyong mga kolumnista, nothing is really too good to be true.”

“Pero hindi kayo napahiya (I did not embarrass you), I assure you, and everybody was clapping except for dalawa (two). But ah, bilib sila sa akin (they admired me),” he enthused. He declined to name who were the two.

Duterte was narrating the plenary session of the East Asia Summit last Thursday, Sep. 8. Participants in the East Asia Summit which follows the ASEAN summit are the 10 members of Asean namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam joined by dialogue partners Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and United States.

Duterte said that he threw away his prepared speech and presented, complete with pictures, the atrocities committed by American soldiers to Filipinos during the Philippine-American war (1899–1902).

“We were warned that we were limited to a prepared speech. But (when) it was handed to me I just threw it away, and I said, ‘I’d like to say something more than myself. Since, we have been talking about human rights, then I pulled out the—look at the pit, look at the bodies crowded there, they could number 200, and one soldier was holding his rifle with his feet on the breast of a Moro. Tell me now, can anybody here in this room… I asked them, can anybody in this room tell me what human rights is all about?”

Duterte said Indonesian President Widodo approved of what he did. He said they made a thumbs up sign to each other. (WE) were shaking with joy that I decided to just talk with sense and the truth.”

Reports said at the end of the EAS session, U.S. President Barack Obama shook hands with each and every leader except Duterte.

A gushing Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. described the President’s performance in 2016 Asean and EAS as “brilliant.”
This is despite the fact that Duterte and his officials spent a lot of time and efforts doing damage control for the curses he uttered against Obama in his pre-departure for Laos statement.

Even when he was in Jakarta, Duterte was still explaining to the Filipino community that he did not curse Obama. He said his statement,” Putang-ina, mumurahin kita diyan sa forum na iyan. Huwag mo akong ganunin,” did not mean he called Obama “son of a whore” as translated by international media.

His explanation is stunning, it would render you speechless. He said putang ina is like saying “son- of- a bitch” or son- of- a- gun”, not son-of a whore.

He said that was the same when he also said “Putang ina mo, Pope.”

“It was not really a statement against the Pope. At itong Amerikano mahusay talaga, Americans really can spin a story. They use the predicate or the adjective that is really worst to hear…

“Iyong putang ina sa atin, they connected with the word “son of a whore.” A ‘whore’ is a very terrible thing to hear. I was talking all along in the dialect. The best combinations thereof the words, translating it to English, and they do it every day, “son of a bitch,” “son of a gun,” ‘di ba?

“Eh putang ina sa atin, sa—if the Filipinos will try to utter it we would have said, “he is a son of a bitch” and you heard of ‘son of a gun’ or ‘fuck you’. Pero it is not translated in any ordinary day and ordinary lang you say, ‘son of a whore’. Pero ginamit nila iyan, kaya siguro si... took offense. Tingnan mo mag gamit ang international press, I said ‘you better watch out.’ Pangkaraniwan sa akin—everybody man here, whether American, African or—who knows English would surely say, ‘son of a bitch,’ ‘son of a gun,’ it is not ‘son of a whore’. There’s never a translation for that, ‘di ba? “

Duterte hinted he has more to give than what he did in the Laos meeting. If it were a birthday, he said, the Asean 2016 was just a 16th birthday, not the 18th, when one makes a formal debut.

“This is just regional. You wait for international,” Duterte said.

President Duterte at first played coy when asked about his assessment of his debut in the international stage in the 2016 summit of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the 18-country East Asia Summit in Laos last week, upon his arrival from Jakarta where he proceeded after the Asean meetings saying it would be “self-serving.” But with little prodding he opened up, “I’m sure that if you’re a Filipino, you’d be proud of me.”

He said the only ones who would not be proud of what he did in Laos and Indonesia (where he proceeded for a state visit from Vientiane) are the “low-life sa press, iyong mga kolumnista, nothing is really too good to be true.”

“Pero hindi kayo napahiya (I did not embarrass you), I assure you, and everybody was clapping except for dalawa (two). But ah, bilib sila sa akin (they admired me),” he enthused. He declined to name who were the two.

Duterte was narrating the plenary session of the East Asia Summit last Thursday, Sep. 8. Participants in the East Asia Summit which follows the ASEAN summit are the 10 members of Asean namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam joined by dialogue partners Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and United States.

Duterte said that he threw away his prepared speech and presented, complete with pictures, the atrocities committed by American soldiers to Filipinos during the Philippine-American war (1899–1902).

“We were warned that we were limited to a prepared speech. But (when) it was handed to me I just threw it away, and I said, ‘I’d like to say something more than myself. Since, we have been talking about human rights, then I pulled out the—look at the pit, look at the bodies crowded there, they could number 200, and one soldier was holding his rifle with his feet on the breast of a Moro. Tell me now, can anybody here in this room… I asked them, can anybody in this room tell me what human rights is all about?”

Duterte said Indonesian President Widodo approved of what he did. He said they made a thumbs up sign to each other. (WE) were shaking with joy that I decided to just talk with sense and the truth.”

Reports said at the end of the EAS session, U.S. President Barack Obama shook hands with each and every leader except Duterte.

A gushing Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. described the President’s performance in 2016 Asean and EAS as “brilliant.”
This is despite the fact that Duterte and his officials spent a lot of time and efforts doing damage control for the curses he uttered against Obama in his pre-departure for Laos statement.

Even when he was in Jakarta, Duterte was still explaining to the Filipino community that he did not curse Obama. He said his statement,” Putang-ina, mumurahin kita diyan sa forum na iyan. Huwag mo akong ganunin,” did not mean he called Obama “son of a whore” as translated by international media.

His explanation is stunning, it would render you speechless. He said putang ina is like saying “son- of- a bitch” or son- of- a- gun”, not son-of a whore.

He said that was the same when he also said “Putang ina mo, Pope.”

“It was not really a statement against the Pope. At itong Amerikano mahusay talaga, Americans really can spin a story. They use the predicate or the adjective that is really worst to hear…

“Iyong putang ina sa atin, they connected with the word “son of a whore.” A ‘whore’ is a very terrible thing to hear. I was talking all along in the dialect. The best combinations thereof the words, translating it to English, and they do it every day, “son of a bitch,” “son of a gun,” ‘di ba?

“Eh putang ina sa atin, sa—if the Filipinos will try to utter it we would have said, “he is a son of a bitch” and you heard of ‘son of a gun’ or ‘fuck you’. Pero it is not translated in any ordinary day and ordinary lang you say, ‘son of a whore’. Pero ginamit nila iyan, kaya siguro si... took offense. Tingnan mo mag gamit ang international press, I said ‘you better watch out.’ Pangkaraniwan sa akin—everybody man here, whether American, African or—who knows English would surely say, ‘son of a bitch,’ ‘son of a gun,’ it is not ‘son of a whore’. There’s never a translation for that, ‘di ba? “

Duterte hinted he has more to give than what he did in the Laos meeting. If it were a birthday, he said, the Asean 2016 was just a 16th birthday, not the 18th, when one makes a formal debut.

“This is just regional. You wait for international,” Duterte said.

Whatever one’s political leaning is, every Filipino wants to be proud of the President when he appears in the world stage.

He represents the Filipino people. His success is our success. His embarrassment is our embarrassment.

The 2016 Asean summit in Vientiane, Laos was President Duterte’s first official foreign trip. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the other world leaders, it was an opportunity for him to show the world his remarkable transition from city mayor to president of one of the Asia’s vibrant democracy.

As Philippine president, he had a prominent role in Laos Asean meeting because next year it will be the Philippines’ turn to host the summit of the 10-country regional grouping to be followed by meeting of leaders of ASEAN’s 10 dialogue partners which include China, Japan, South Korea , and the United States.

But he wasted that opportunity by his offensive remarks made on the eve of the summit directed to the leader of the world’s superpower whom he had not yet met in person and had not said anything bad about him.

The regrettable thing about it is that, those disgusting remarks were not warranted.

The question by Reuters’ Jerome Morales was hardly provocative. He merely asked: “Sir, there have been concerns on extrajudicial killings, sir, and you will meet leaders. Any line of communication that we have prepared to address this issue in front of other foreign leaders?”
Duterte asked if it’s about extrajudicial killings and Morales replied in the affirmative adding “human rights.”

Duterte asked, “To whom shall I address myself to and who will be asking the questions, may I know?

Morales replied, “Like Obama, sir.”

Duterte got fired up and launched a lecture on the Philippines no longer a colony of the U.S. “I do not respond to anybody but to the people of the Republic of the Philippines. Wala akong pakialam sa kanya. Who is he? “

He went on and on, cursing: “Putang-ina, mumurahin kita diyan sa forum na iyan. Huwag mo akong ganunin. Tell that to everybody.”

He threatened to kick Obama and invited journalsits to join him in Laos so they would see him do it in front of them: “Hindi ako bilib diyan sa America. Gusto mo sipain ko pa iyan sa harap mo eh. Pumunta kayo doon.”

He said he will not discuss with other leaders in Laos the state of lawlessness, which he declared following the night market bombing in Davao Friday night.

“I will not discuss it with them…It’s an internal affair which nobody but nobody should interfere including the so-called judicial killing of the drug lords and the apparatus/members of the drug syndicates,” he said.

Duterte also said he did not want “to pick a quarrel with Obama.”

“But certainly, I would not appear to be beholden to anybody. I only am answerable, again, to the Filipino people who elected me as President. Period. Nobody but nobody should interfere. This is an independent country, nobody has the right to lecture on me. God, do not do it. “

He warned: “Magkababuyan tayo doon ‘pagginawa mo sa akin iyan.”

After the White House cancelled the meeting with him Duterte, issued a statement read by Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella. It read: “While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the US President.”

He said his primary intention in his statements was “ to chart an independent foreign policy while promoting closer ties with all nations, especially the US with which we have a had a long standing partnership.”

An independent foreign policy is enshrined in the Constitution. Everybody is behind the President in implementing it. And it is best done with civility. The Filipino people are not “bastos.”

It’s a pity that Duterte’s idol, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not the one who represented Russia in the Laos summit. Duterte was scheduled to meet with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Duterte might learn from one of the quotes attributed to Putin: “When people cross the boundary of good manners, this attests to their weakness not their strength.”